Shake Me Down
by TurtleStripes
Summary: Arizona meets Callie for the second time in a grocery story, who is with her 1yr old daughter and on her way to a date.
1. Grape Killer

**A/N: I know I shouldn't really start yet another fic right now, but what can I say, I like avoiding things and it's nearing the end of the semester so there's a lot for me to avoid.**

**So apparently I have a thing for writing stories with kids? I don't actually have any, nor have I ever or plan to any time soon. I'm well aware kids are never as well behaved as fics on here make them seem (I know I'm just as guilty of making them seem like angels, but seriously.)**

**I have a rough idea of the direction I want this to go so just let me know if you want it to just be a couple of chapters or something longer. Stay frosty!**

* * *

It was a crappy day; the sky was nothing but varying shades of grey and the rain was coming down in buckets. It was the kind of storm you could feel, it was in the air, calm and charged at the same time, Mother Nature was preparing herself to let go. It was going to be a stormy night in Seattle.

'_Might as well get ready. No harm in shopping now that I'm already soaked' _Thought Arizona as she made her way into the grocery store. It was a rather large store and, thanks to the weather, fairly void of people as well. Arizona grabbed a cart and began pushing it up and down the aisles as she mentally went through things she would need; which she had to admit wasn't really all that much because she wasn't able to cook very much anyway.

'_Cereal, check…coffee, check…ooo, donuts, double check!...hmmm, maybe fruit?' _Arizona swiftly changed the direction of her cart as she came to the end of the aisle and headed towards the produce section, slowing to a stop as she reached the first section of assorted fruit.

She picked a few apples and went to walk backwards a few steps to reach for a plastic baggy when she felt something squish under her shoe. Lifting the heel of her foot and looking down she saw a small pile of squished grapes and a few that had been unharmed. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion as to how the grapes got there, she knew they weren't there a second ago because she had just walked through that spot and she could see the grape section a few aisles away from where she was standing.

She frowned and looked up, meeting the dark chestnut eyes of the grape killer. The tiny human was seated in the front of the cart with the bag of grapes pulled onto her tiny lap while she pulled them apart and dropped them onto the ground in front of her, giggling away and having a good time entertaining herself. Aside from it being a waste of grapes, Arizona found it highly amusing watching the young child toss grapes but figured she should probably tell her parent. Looking away from the giggling little girl she spotted the woman that simply had to be her mother, looking between the two the relation was clear and Arizona couldn't even see the woman's whole face yet as she was distractedly talking on her phone.

"…_you're sure? I know, I know…sorry, get well soon…bye…"_

"Well Kels, looks like Mami won't be going out tonight…just you and me…" The woman spoke to her child, oblivious to the blonde's presence.

"Uhm, hi…" Arizona awkwardly waved to get the woman's attention "I don't mean to interrupt or anything…" She quickly added when the woman turned to her with a startled expression "I just thought you might want to know what your adorable little girl here has been up to" She gestured down to the grapes around her feet and the wheels of the cart.

"Kelsie Marie Torres! Ugh…I can't even get mad at you…"

The woman gently took away the grapes and continued to chatter away while Arizona curiously studied her, she seemed so…familiar. The woman stood up straight again and offered her hand and realization hit Arizona.

"Sorry about that…Bet you weren't expecting some rudimentary wine making today" She awkwardly chuckled "Callie" They both said at the same time, Arizona's tone more questioning and Callie finished "…Torres, nice to meet you" She studied the blonde woman "I'm sorry, do we know each other?"

It was now Arizona's turn to awkwardly chuckle as a slight blush spread across her cheeks "Sort of…Arizona Robbins…" She extended her hand to meet Callie's "We went to the same high school in Miami for a bit, but I don't think we ever actually spoke…I remember you though…we had English together and you ran out in the middle of your presentation…" She smiled remembering the day she watched the Latina get up in front of the class

"Oh my God…you remember that?" Callie groaned and rubbed her hand over her face "Yeah, there aren't many things I'd want to be remembered by from High School…" Thoughts were flying through her head, she was trying to remember Arizona from high school; she certainly didn't seem like someone that could be easily forgotten. "Oh! I think I remember now! made you do that introduction on your first day! I – sorry" She cut herself off as her phone rang. Quickly digging her phone back out of her purse, she grimaced and groaned. "Sorry, just…date I can't go to…you know," she gestured towards her daughter "babysitter problems."

"I could do it!" Arizona's eyes widened as she realized what she had just suggested "I mean, I could uh…babysit for you…if you want" She stuttered out, digging herself deeper and deeper "Sorry…that was weird…" She shrugged apologetically and Callie couldn't help but smile at the nervous woman in front of her.

"It's alright, and no offence or anything, but I can't really just leave my little girl with a stranger…"

"Oh! Right, sorry. Actually, I'm Head of PEDs at – "

Cut off by Callie's ringtone again, she smiled encouragingly for the dark haired woman to answer it and Callie hesitantly answered. Arizona was slightly relieved to be cut off again; she still didn't know why she was offering to babysit – she _fixed _tiny humans, she didn't babysit them…that's what her nurses were for – and then she remembered why, this was the same Calliope Torres that she had crushed on for the entirety of the Robbins' stay in Miami. She inwardly sighed and tried to subtly eavesdrop on the phone conversation.

"Hi, Dave…yeah, about at…oh? Really? _Seriously?_" She made eye contact with Arizona and covered the mouthpiece of her phone "Would you seriously not mind babysitting tonight?" Arizona offered a small smile and shrugged and mouthed 'nope'

"Okay, nevermind…that's great…see you at 6…bye"

"Thank you sooo much! I was going to turn him down, but-but he already had the tickets for the movie I really, really wanted to see…and it's unbelieving hard to date with a daughter and…"

She looked so genuinely concerned that she made Arizona do something that she might not have wanted that Arizona smiled even wider as she placed a hand on the other woman's arm to stop her from continuing on her mini rant.

"Callie…it's okay…seriously…I offered, remember?"

Callie seemed to settle for that and the two finished their shopping together, talking about their high school experiences and their days leading up to when they had met (again).


	2. Tiny Space

While waiting for her groceries to be bagged Callie glanced at the time on her phone. _'Oh, nooo, no, no, no.' _She mumbled and turned to Arizona, who was in line behind her, with an apologetic look on her face "Would you mind going straight to my place from here? I just…lost track of time and he's going to be there looking for me soon…I mean, if you don't want to…or if you wanted to have Kels at your place, or – "

Arizona stood there with wide eyes, lost in the rambling. To be honest, she'd just been watching Callie's lips since the second or third word. "Callie…Callie…Callie…" She sighed but couldn't hold back the amused smile that Callie was still going, she gently placed her hands on the other woman's shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze "Callie…it's okay…seriously, I'll just follow you from here…it's fine, really."

"Are you sure? My place is pretty tiny, like _really – "_

"It's fiiiine" Arizona said in a sing-song voice and grinned, sneakily switching carts so she was pushing the cart with little Kelsie in it.

"Are you really sure? I – wait," she realized what had happened "did you really just steal my kid?" She ran to catch up so they were side by side again. Oddly enough the two women were parked fairly close together and Arizona couldn't help but notice she seemed to have a lot more groceries but shrugged it off, figuring that Callie was probably just picking up a few things.

x-x

As they climbed the stairs to Callie's apartment, Callie with Kelsie, and Arizona carrying Callie's groceries as well as anything she had bought that would need to go in the fridge. Arizona was trying not to think of the woman in front of her, and _definitely _trying to keep her mind off of how sexy she was; obviously that wasn't going to stop her from admiring the view, and boy was it a nice view, but she kept reminding herself to keep her thoughts PG, the woman was clearly straight.

After what Arizona considered a forever of climbing stairs, they were finally at the door of Callie's apartment. Callie slowly swung the door open – she tried to be a confident person but being a single mom, coming home to a studio apartment…and to leave her baby girl with someone she (barely) knew in high school, to go on a date…she wasn't exactly bursting with confidence at the moment. She watched as the blonde looked around and began trying to think of things to say as an excuse for her situation; there was something about the woman that made her want to tell her the whole story of Calliope Torres, but now was certainly not the time for that.

"Told you it was tiny…" she laughed and gestured around to the small apartment; and it really was tiny, Arizona looked around and saw a double bed in the corner with a crib close by, a small black couch across from an old tube tv with a small cabinet as a tv stand, and a small kitchenette that looked like it was put to good use. It was actually quite impressive what Callie had managed to do with the small space.

Just as Arizona was about to say that it was cozy and she liked it, there was a knock at the door. Callie quickly handed off Kelsie to Arizona and went to answer it, realizing as she opened the door that due to the small size of her apartment she would have to introduce everyone. _'Damn manners'_

"Hi Dave." She smiled and saw Arizona moving to the kitchenette – maybe she could just make a hasty escape without awkward introductions. She turned her head back to Arizona and offered a small smile "Uh, so…Normal babysitter stuff I guess, try not to keep her up too late…bottles are in the fridge…no boyfriends – err, sorry…usually my sitters are teenagers… " She trailed off and Dave poked his head in and a wide smile spread across his face, boyfriends wouldn't be an issue, he turned to Callie "So, you have a thing for PEDs, eh?"

Callie just looked at him with confusion etched across her face "What?"

He gestured between himself and Arizona, who had turned upon hearing a familiar voice "PEDs nurse and PEDs surgeon, both devilishly good looking, and incredibly charming, if I do say so myself. Hopefully she's not my competition though; I could never win against ." He grinned.

"Dave!" Arizona had turned a little red and came closer with Kelsie still snuggled in her arms.

Callie looked back and forth between them, worried that her date might have the hots for her babysitter – they clearly had a history. "I…you know each other? Am I missing something?...this isn't some, like, long lost love thing is it?"

Neither Dave nor Arizona could contain their laughter and Dave affectionately patted Arizona on the child-less shoulder "Not unless you're talking about a long lost bromance – not only taught me everything I knew about PEDs; Everything I know about treating a lady right, I owe to Arizona here!" He smiled remembering his days at Seattle Grace.

Arizona's heart sank finding out that Callie's date was her old wingman, Dave. It was hard enough to think of Callie going out tonight, but now she knew that her date was honestly a good guy – and she should be happy for him, for both of them – but she just couldn't bring herself to feel that way. She had enjoyed spending time with Dave, and he really was a great guy, but something was pulling her towards the beautiful brunette; obviously, she was the Head of PEDs and here she was, babysitting, on a Friday night, no less.

The three exchanged their goodbyes after a little more playful banter between Dave and Arizona. Arizona tried her best to seem genuinely happy for the pair and kept trying to reason with herself; it was only a first date, Callie wasn't hers, technically they weren't even friends, so she shouldn't be getting herself worked up over it. She sighed and went over to pick out a movie with Kelsie and, as gracefully as one can manage with a smile child, flopped onto the small couch after loading Open Season into the dvd player and locating the remotes.

"We'll just relax, huh, little lady?" She wiggled against the cushions settling herself in and tried to focus on the movie and little girl, absentmindedly running her fingers through the dark curls atop Kelsie's head, slowly lulling both of them to sleep.


	3. Butterfly Sanctuary

Callie groaned as she climbed the stairs back to her apartment, stopping halfway to take off her heels. Dave, of course a perfect gentleman, had insisted on escorting her back safely and she couldn't figure out whether she was flattered at the chivalry, or frustrated that he didn't think she could handle herself. Being honest with herself, she realized that she was just upset because the night just didn't feel right for her; thoughts of Arizona were running through her head the entire night and she didn't want to think about _why _the blonde PEDs surgeon had been on her mind since running into her earlier that day.

She sighed as they arrived at her door and looked up to her date. Although he still wore a smile, she could see the disappointment there. "Look, Dave…I – "

He cut her off with a soft kiss to her cheek and smiled sadly "It's alright. You like her, don't you?" His head nodded toward the direction of her apartment where Arizona and Kelsie were.

It was said without a hint of accusation that made Callie feel bad for wasting Dave's time. She shrugged her shoulders and floundered trying to sort out her feelings as well as something to tell the sweet man in front of her. She had started her day off with the promise of spending time with her daughter and having a promising date – with a man – only to be swept up in a beautiful blonde storm, upsetting everything in her mind.

x-x

Upon entering her tiny apartment she saw the glow of the tv and was surprised to not only see Arizona awake, but her little Kelsie as well. Arizona had her head propped up against the arm rest and her legs bent, little Kelsie sitting on her stomach resting her back against Arizona's thighs as Arizona softly spoke to her and Kelsie garbled in response.

The door quietly clicked shut and blue eyes turned to meet her deep brown eyes. Arizona offered a dimpled smile and sat up to give Callie room to sit beside her. Callie's smile in return to Arizona's didn't quite meet her eyes and Arizona assumed it was because she still had Kelsie awake at midnight.

"Sorry," she offered sheepishly "We feel asleep earlier and now we're both wide awake…"

"It's okay…it's not…that" Callie took her seat on the couch, compressing the cushion and causing Arizona's back to fall against her. Arizona tilted her head back when Callie sighed and Callie subconsciously started playing with Arizona's hair. It all just felt so…natural to have Arizona cuddled up against her; aside from her just coming back from a date, Callie thought to herself.

"…date didn't go as expected?" Arizona cautiously asked, she knew it would have went well, she did teach Dave, after all, but Callie didn't seem to be enjoying any post-date bliss. "Oh…" Arizona sadly realized "…us," she gestured between her and the infant "being awake didn't ruin any plans did it?"

At Callie's prolonged silence, Arizona felt like a massive weight was settling in on top of her; she had rules to prevent this. She didn't do "newborns", she didn't fall for straight girls, and she certainly didn't _babysit _on Friday nights…or any nights, for that matter. So what was she doing? She sighed; she was breaking all of her rules and she didn't know what to do to _not _break them.

Arizona started to get up, snapping Callie out of her thoughts as she gently held Arizona in place, assuring her that she wasn't responsible for her less than cheery demeanour. It was now Callie's turn to sigh and she watched Kelsie play with Arizona's fingers. Her mind was racing with thoughts and excuses; all the reasons she could be gay vs. couldn't/shouldn't be gay. Blaming everything from being over worked to just not dating the right guys. Arizona was in a similar state of denial, but she certainly wasn't denying loving ladies; she was fighting against herself for how happy she was with this woman and her child – a straight woman and a baby – two things Arizona swore to never touch with a ten foot pole. Yet here she was, basically snuggled into a very straight woman, with a tiny human cuddled into her, playing with her hands and she was enjoying it. Oh, how she was enjoying it.

Eventually the silence was broken and the two women talked about everything but "the date" and their feelings towards each other. They were getting to know each other pretty well over a fairly short amount of time. At the next break in conversation, Arizona finally decided (with the aid of her drowsiness) to finally ask Callie one of the questions that had been burning a hole in her mind.

"So…uhm, you totally don't have to answer this or anything…because it totally isn't my place and might actually be inappropriate…like, super inappropriate – "

"Arizona – spit it out."

"Where's Kelsie's Dad?"

At the pained look on the Latina's face Arizona wished she could take her question back and just hold the beautiful woman beside her and make sure she never saw that look again. "I am so, so sorry! Just forget I asked. We can talk about something else…" She was cursing her curiousity. She just couldn't fathom why the man would have been crazy enough to leave these two beautiful girls in the first place, and why he wasn't paying some sort of child support or something so that Callie and Kelsie could have a bigger space; she thought Callie made fantastic use of the space, but she thought, surely, a single mother should get to at least enjoy her own bedroom – not have to share it with the rest of the apartment – and when Kelsie got older? She held her sigh in. It wasn't her place. Callie didn't seem like the type to accept any "white knight" swooping in and trying to take care of her life. "…Callie?"

Callie's gaze returned from the far away it was staring into and she swallowed the lump in her throat. She never really talked about what happened, it was painful for multiple reasons, but for some reason she felt like she wanted – or almost _needed _to let Arizona know.

"It's…okay. Him and I weren't together for long…he didn't even want me, so when I told him I was pregnant it was kind of like the last straw. " She blinked a few times, recalling that frightening time in her life "He walked out and took my parents with him." At Arizona's confused look, she explained "They're really religious…_really religious. _Daddy flew out here when he heard the news…they weren't happy that I was having a child at that time in my life, and there was the fact that I wasn't married…and in a child-like temper tantrum he decided to let my mother and father know about my less than savoury history with the other residents at the hospital…the rest is history, they cut me off, refuse to speak to me…my father recently started talking to me again but I'm still on my own financially – not that I'd just live off their money or anything, just as a single mom and losing my job and everything, it would have been – "

Arizona broke her ranting by gently squeezing her arm and repeating her name until she stopped. "He sounds like a complete asshole – but, I think you skipped a few steps – you said residents? You're a doctor, too?"

"I did. But no, I was working through my residency when life happened and I was forced to drop out because I couldn't handle everything on my own. I completed a shorter program to become a PSW/nurse so I would have something to pay the bills and a more predictable schedule so I can take care of my daughter."

"Have you ever thought about going back?"

Callie hesitated for a moment, she still held a little anger that she was forced to give up her dreams, but her daughter was worth it "I have…the Chief has offered me the option to come back and complete my residency, but I'm not sure I could work the long hours knowing that I'd be missing out on even more time with Kelsie, and likely leaving her with a stranger…as Daddy so eloquently put it 'Calliope, you're trading in your dreams for a child'"

Arizona grinned, _Calliope_, she loved the sound of that. It was so fitting for the stunning Latina. She decided to ignore the difficult parts of what was just shared for now and try to lighten things up. "Call-i-o-pee…Calliiiiope…Calliope."

Callie groaned and her face flushed. _'How the hell can she give me __**that **__feeling just from saying my name – a name I usually hate being called. There goes your 'totally straight' argument, Torres.'_

"How did you know you liked girls?" She blurted out and stunned herself into silence.

"I…what?" Arizona was completely thrown off by the question. Was Callie suddenly uncomfortable with being around a lesbian? Was it just some weird interest? She didn't understand.

"How did you…you know, know that you liked women…want to be with them and…stuff."

Arizona sat up a little straighter "I…do you have a problem with me being gay, Calliope?"

Callie closed her eyes, _'You really have to stop saying my name like that, Arizona.' _"No, no. Not at all. I'm just…curious."

Arizona's mind pictured a butterfly sanctuary existing in a Nickelodeon version of her stomach. Was this really happening? "I-I don't really know…I think I always just _knew_, ya know? Kissing a few definitely helped to cement the theory though." She cheekily grinned.

Callie chuckled a little sadly "That's it? A feeling and kissing?" She couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice, she was hoping for something more definitive. "How're you supposed to know with so little to go on? Aren't doctors supposed to like facts and figures and all that?"

Arizona smiled, figuring it was now or never, and leaned forward, tentatively stopping just short of Callie's lips, making sure she wasn't about to have a panic attack and softly connected their lips, briefly lingering before slowly pulling back with a soft smile "I think you'll know…"


	4. Rough Day

A/N: So, I'll admit this is probably more of a segue, but it does have some parts that will be important for later. One more week of school!

Anyone who asked about Super Something updates: I've been in a bad mood and what I wrote took it in a direction that I don't want it to go in...hence this story (sorry if you thought it would be all sunshine and rainbows, because it won't be!)

Enjoy!

* * *

"That's…you…it – you stole our first kiss…" Callie stammered out

Arizona just shook her head and grinned "That's your only concern? That I 'stole' our first kiss?"

It could be easy for Arizona to be over the moon with excitement, but she was still wary. She was ecstatic that Callie could, apparently, like girls. But she didn't want to have her heart broken, Callie could just end up "experimenting" and going back to men; Hell, she just spent the night babysitting because Callie had been out on a date with a man. She had been with many "straight" girls during her college days, but something about this felt different, like if it was going to happen then she should make it last; She wanted it to be something that would last.

Callie sat there speechless but a smile slowly spread across her face. She couldn't deny that it felt amazing when Arizona's lips pressed against hers, and it was certainly better than any kiss she had ever experienced previous to this. She was still lost in her thoughts when Arizona cleared her throat, slightly nervous from the silence. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lip and she held back her sigh "Well, I guess I better get going…I had fun hanging out with little Kelsie, I guess I'll…see you around?" She made a face at her flustered speech and settled the tiny human in her crib before gathering her things and making her way towards the door.

The cool air slowly replacing the warmth beside Callie where Arizona had been snuggled up next to her served to snap Callie out of her thoughts and she turned just on time to see a dash of blonde slipping through the door. "Arizona, wait!" She hopped off the couch and out into the hallway, catching Arizona just as her foot hit the first stair. As she gently pinned the blonde to the wall of the stair well their eyes met, Callie's shining with hope and determination, Arizona's holding more hesitance, "Callie…I can't – " She was cut off by soft pink lips pressing against hers in the most delicious way. Giving in and kissing back, she relaxed back against the wall with her hand finding Callie's hips to pull her closer. If it was some sort of last kiss, Arizona was going to make damn sure it was a good one.

Callie smiled against Arizona's lips as her hand slid into the blonde's pocket, removing her phone and instinctively tapping the right keys from memory and slowly pulled back "Call me?" She had meant for it to come out with more confidence, but she was still a little shaken up from everything that had happened in such a short time. _'Is that all it takes? Less than 12 hours and I'm questioning my sexuality?'_

Arizona's eyes fluttered open and her mouth moved to form words when she noticed her phone in Callie's hand. She knew it was hers, her iphone was white and Callie's was black. She just didn't know how the Latina had gotten it; she was sure that she had it securely in her pocket. She narrowed her eyes and looked between her phone and Callie who was looking a tad sheepish.

"I, uh…took it upon myself to give you my number…" Callie said as she fiddled with the phone is question in a desperate attempt to keep herself distracted from those piercing blue eyes.

Arizona softly laughed at the nervous woman who was being so adorable "Callie…" She gently placed her hand under Callie's chin and lifted her head to make eye contact "I already had it, remember? You gave it to me like, 4 times when I said I'd babysit Kelsie…"

"Oh…yeh, right…" Callie nervously chuckled as she handed the phone back "I-I mean…I noticed, I mean, my name was already in there, but I just thought I'd make sure…you know…" Arizona smiled wider, dimples out in full force as she leaned forward and placed a quick kiss against Callie's lips "I'll call you, Calliope, promise"

Callie beamed and gave Arizona a huge hug, almost causing the pair to teeter down the stairs. After Arizona reassuring Callie again that she would call her at some point, as well as send a txt when she arrived home safely, and Callie thanking her for everything, Arizona was finally on her way home.

After Arizona had assured Callie that she had made it home in one piece they continued to chat back and forth until almost midnight. Arizona didn't have to work until noon, but Callie not only had to be awake bright and early for work, but to get Kelsie to daycare as well.

x-x

Arizona awoke late the next morning to a quick good morning message from Callie and she smiled as she got ready for the day with an extra spring in her step. Something still felt…off. But she was going to try to enjoy the moment while she could; she knew that if she stopped to think she would end up shutting Callie out before giving her a chance, it was what she usually did, think first, feel later, but again, she wanted this to be different.

x-x

Callie's day was nonstop from the moment she woke up. She barely got to work on time, her first few clients were absolutely miserable, the daycare called at noon to tell her that Kelsie seemed to have the flu and wouldn't be allowed back for the rest of the week, meaning she'd not only have to take the rest of the day off and likely get sick herself, but she'd have to find someone to take care of Kelsie the next few days, and to top it all off, she was put in charge of some fancy new client that would require her to frequently visit the hospital as per some ridiculous request because she used to work there or something like that. Callie had learned fairly quickly that if a client has enough money there isn't much they can't get.

She groaned as she slung her bag over her shoulder and thanked the young woman taking care of the rest of her appointments for the day. Most of her journey to the daycare was spent lost in thought; she had texted Arizona a few times to vent and mentally ran through a checklist of everything she would need to get through this week. With everything running through her mind she couldn't help but panic a little; could she really survive all this? And the whole Arizona/gay thing? Was she even gay, maybe she just wanted to be friends with Arizona and hasn't met the right guy yet?

She closed her eyes and sighed, willing herself to force out all of her thoughts. _It was going to be a __**really **__long week._

x-x

Arizona spent the rest of the afternoon in a heated debate with herself. Callie had texted her telling her about her bad day and having to go home with a sick Kelsie and Arizona could only imagine all the stress that was going to add to the poor woman. Now, her shift was finally over and it was a matter of her just continuing to text positive things, telling her she'd make it through, or do what she really had the impulse to do and head over there with pizza and fun things to help make little Kelsie feel better. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Hey, Karev!" She called out and clicked out the wheels in her shoes to glide up the grumpy looking man. "Yeh?" He grunted, briefly glancing up before turning his attention back to the charts he had in front of him. "Do we still have that extra nursery room from 's temporary insanity?" With as acting Chief and the addition of their newest bundle of joy, Zola, Meredith had demanded she have a special room when Zola had shown signs of illness (the sniffles, Arizona scoffed).

Alex confirmed that the single room was still set up and looked up to ask why, only to see Arizona rolling down the hallway faster than usual as she tossed a quick thanks over her shoulder.


	5. Surprise

Arizona was on a mission. She stood in the elevator after getting changed out of her scrubs, knowing she had clearly lost her mind, but she decided to forge ahead with her plan anyway. She still wasn't sure why she was reacting this way towards Calliope and her daughter. Had she come across this this situation with anyone else, or maybe even any other time, she would have been running in the opposite direction as fast as she could. All she could do was hope that Callie would prove her need for her 'rules' all wrong, and that she wouldn't end up with a broken heart.

The elevator dinged and she made her way out, looking around for the guy she needed " !" She spotted him and made her way over and patiently waited while he finished talking to a nurse. Really, she needed the time to prep herself, even though she knew Derek before he was Chief, he was still an authority figure and she had never dealt very well with authority figures.

"Yes, ?"

"Would it, uh, be alright if I make use of Zola's nursery up in PEDs before it gets taken down?"

"Are there no more open beds?" He was confused as to why the room would be necessary, even when Meredith had requested a separate room there had been open beds in the PEDs ward, and as Chief he knew he would need to do something if they were running low on space.

"No, no. It's not that…I have, a…friend, who's little girl is sick and she isn't welcome at the daycare until she's better…it'd just be easier for her…and I, if I can easily keep an eye on her."

Derek eyed the blonde, he knew through the horrible hospital gossip that didn't commit to things very easily in regards to relationships, and had heard many more colourful things leave nurses' lips, so he couldn't help but wonder what was going on, and if it was really just a _friend _that Arizona was trying to help. He shook his head, he was obviously spending too much time with his wife and her twisted sister, Arizona's intentions weren't really his business.

"Sorry…got lost in thought there. I don't see a problem; as far as I see it, it's an open bed and a sick child – go for it. She'll still have to be charged for supplies or treatments like any other patient though." He added the last bit mostly out of responsibility; they were a family around here and if the girl was important enough for Arizona to bring her in and make special arrangements he knew she would be taken care of.

"Thank you, Chief!" She beamed and took off to work on pulling together the rest of her plan.

x-x

Callie was startled by a knock at her door. There weren't many people that knew where she lived, let alone anyone that would be coming over now, unannounced. She looked through the peephole and her heart started beating faster when she saw the top of a blonde head.

She swung the door open with cautious optimism. "Arizona?" The surgeon stood in the hall with a box of pizza in her arms with a giant Toys R Us bag with a…bottle of wine sticking out?

Arizona grinned nervously and tried to swallow her nervousness. "Calliope." Her smile widened as the name escaped her lips "I know we don't know each other very well – and that we aren't together, or anything – and you can tell me if it's totally out of line – but I just thought that you and Kelsie might like some company? I brought pizza…and wine! And some toys and stuff for Kelsie that usually make the kids at work cheer up when they aren't feeling well."

As Arizona's eyes raised up to finally make eye contact with the woman again she couldn't help herself from thinking that she always wanted to be the reason that, that megawatt smile spread across Calliope's face; it was stunning, to say the least. "No...Yes! I mean no, that isn't a problem…it's great…you're great." She blushed when she realized what she said and ducked her head and gestured for Arizona to come in.

They settled in on the couch with the pizza and wine for themselves and baby food and a sippy cup for Kelsie. Callie smiled as she watched her little girl leaning against Arizona as the blonde helped feed her with her new airplane spoon – Callie had initially laughed, wasn't the airplane supposed to be in their imagination? Now there were actual spoons shaped like airplanes?

"Thank you, for all of this," she gestured to the food and treats "you really didn't have to." She smiled at Arizona, she and Kelsie had never really had anyone around to do this kind of thing for them. Even before Kelsie, Callie hadn't really had anyone like that.

Arizona shook her head, and then turned to look Callie in the eye and awkwardly cleared her throat "About that…I…I kind of have something to talk to you about…"

Callie was freaking out a little; she knew something this good had to come with a catch. She sat wide eyed, waiting for the bomb to drop. The look on Callie's face caused her to second guess herself even more and she nervously wrung her hands together "You can totally say no – cuz, you know, it's – weird." She cleared her throat "Okay. Uhm – "

"Please just do it." Callie blurted out and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Excuse me?" Arizona asked, completely bewildered as to what Callie was referring to.

"I've heard the gossip, okay? I know no one wants to be with the "first timer" or "newborn" or whatever it's called. And I have a kid, and I don't have a nice apartment, and I'm a mess and kissing me was probably a mistake, so if you're going to break – wait, we aren't even together, you can't break up with me – so you're just telling me you can't start _this?_" she gestured between them "Whatever it might have been?"

"What? Callie, no…yes? I'm so confused." She reached out and held her hands and sighed, narrowing her eyes slightly as she studied the beautiful, yet insecure woman "I don't typically get involved with women in your…situation. It's true." As Callie's face dropped, Arizona gave her hands a reassuring squeeze "But you aren't very typical now, are you? There's just something…I don't know…special? About you. So, if you're willing to give this, us, a shot, then so am I."

"I know this sounds like an excuse, but I don't really have much time to date – I work, a lot. And I'll always put my daughter first. And I just feel that you should know that. I – "

"Callie, slow down, okay? If you really want to do this, we'll work it out, I promise. I know what it's like to work a lot," she gestured to herself "Surgeon, remember?"

Callie nervously chuckled and Arizona took her hands back into her own "That actually isn't what I wanted to talk to you about though…"

A groan escaped Callie's lips as a blush slowly coloured her cheeks, impressive, given that her complexion normally hid it. "Sorry…" she mumbled

Arizona decided to take a deep breath and forge ahead before she changed her mind or got sidetracked again "So, like I said, it's kind of…weird. And you can totally say no. WhatifItookKelsietoworkwithmetheresaspeciallittler oomanditwouldbeperfectandyoucouldstillgotoworkandn othavetoworryaboutdaycare…"

Callie's eyebrows shot up and she leaned forward, as if being closer would help her decipher what the blonde was saying "Arizona, I can't understand a word you're saying." Arizona sighed and grumbled dejectedly, knowing she'd have to say everything again.

"I could…take Kelsie to work with me? There's a separate little nursery room set up from when one of the other staff member's little girl was sick and it's no longer in use…I just, I figured," she shyly shrugged "she'd be well taken care of, and you wouldn't have to miss any time from work…"

"Seriously?"

Arizona opened her mouth to respond but she wasn't even sure if Callie was excited, or upset, or something else entirely.

"I mean, really?" A wide smile spread across her face "That would be so great! I was not looking forward to missing that much work, or having to find someone to babysit."

Now Arizona relaxed and smiled, dimples reappearing "Glad I could help."

"But, wait – there's, I – " At the sight of Callie's smile dropping, Arizona made a guess as to what the Latina might be worrying about.

"You don't have to worry about anything, I've got it covered. You can drop her off and pick her up whenever you have to – if it'll be too far outside of visiting hours, my place is right across from the hospital. She'll be surrounded by some of the country's best doctors; so much better than daycare." She grinned, flashing her dimples.

Callie engulfed Arizona in a huge bone crushing hug and Arizona couldn't be happier "You're considering Ortho, right? Quite the squeeze you got there, rockstar." She grinned as she hugged Callie back.

Nothing could stop the megawatt smile that spread across Calliope's face. Arizona said _considering_, not past tense. Did Arizona really believe in her that much?

The pair lingered in the moment as long as they could before separating and continuing to chat until the fell asleep somewhat awkwardly on the small couch. The menu music of the forgotten dvd playing in the background and the soft snores from little Kelsie drifting through the room from the crib.

* * *

**A/N: Too easy, right? Must mean trouble's coming. Dundundunnnn**


	6. Through the Grape Vine

Callie slowly woke up and tried to stretch her aching limbs and surmised that just must have fallen asleep on the couch. Why? She didn't know; her bed was literally in the same room, less than 10 steps away. She also couldn't figure out why she had let Kelsie sleep on top of her, that just didn't seem safe and not like something she'd do at all, especially when Kelsie is already sick, if anything, they'd be in her bed sprawled out, not cramped up on the couch.

She sighed, deciding to just drop it and worry about it later. She tried to stretch her legs again and moved her arms to wrap around her little girl to pull her closer when her eyes shot open; that wasn't Kelsie's weight resting against her stomach, it was Arizona's. _Wait, Arizona was…__**is **__asleep between her legs…_

She did a quick check of her surroundings; they were both still fully clothed, and Kelsie was still sound asleep, that was a relief. Then she noticed the time. _Shit._

Forgetting the situation, she attempted to jump up to get ready, successfully tossing Arizona onto the floor as she managed the stand upright for a couple seconds before their untangling limbs brought her down with a thud, stirring Kelsie from her slumber.

Arizona groaned and rolled onto her back. Did she just fall? It felt like she fell asleep in one of the on-call rooms. And was that a child starting to cry? Why weren't there nurses attending to it? Callie watched as Arizona laid there and grumbled to herself, it was actually pretty adorable. "Morning…" She cleared her throat and watched as the blonde shot up and turned to look at her and around at where she was. "Morning…" she offered up, groggily "Guess we fell asleep talking last night." She smiled at Callie and Callie forgot what she was even worrying about in the first place.

Arizona stood and held her hand out to Callie, who seemed to snap back to reality at the sight of the wall clock behind the blonde's head. "I really, really want to make you breakfast but I have to go or I'm going to be late again and I can't be late again…and thank you so much, again for…well, everything…" Callie rambled off while moving around the room the get ready, leaving Arizona in a daze as she watched Callie toss off her shirt and move to her wardrobe to find another. She gulped at the sight, that caramel skin on display was all she could think about…she knew she should have averted her eyes, but she just _couldn't_.

Figuring she should probably get ready as well, and having nothing to change into, she went about getting Kelsie ready, changing her diaper as well as getting her a bag together to take to the hospital. In the midst of making sure all the "necessary" toys were in the bag, the small apartment had become a suffocating environment; the feeling of familiarity and home hit Arizona in the face, she wasn't a parent, nor did she plan to ever be, but this was making her feel like one. All of the feelings of commitment, responsibility and expectations that she desperately tried to avoid in her personal life were crashing down on her. Suddenly, instead of wanting to run into the Latina's arms, she wanted to run away; far and fast. That wasn't an option though, she had basically dragged herself into the line of fire by volunteering to, essentially, babysit Kelsie for the rest of the week until she could return to daycare.

Callie was too busy engrossed in her rushed morning routine that she didn't notice Arizona's struggle and handed her a travel mug full of coffee and kissed her cheek as they left the apartment and went on their separate ways.

Callie realized what she had done...30 minutes later when she was standing on the bus getting ready to get off at her stop, and almost dropped her coffee. She'd kissed Arizona. Kissed her like it was no big deal and happened all the time. Kissed her after the woman had spent the morning getting her child ready…to take her to work with her for the day. Callie hadn't even asked her if she needed anything or offered a change of clothes or…anything. She just kissed her cheek and left. She groaned and let her head fall against the cold metal bar in front of her, quickly grimacing and wiping her face with her sleeve when she realized what she was leaning against and how many other hands and things had touched it.

Arizona made her way to her car in the parking lot at Callie's building just to realize that she didn't have a car seat for the little girl and held her groan as she called a cab. _Another thing to add to the list that she'd need for the week._

She was torn; she was still glad that she was able to help Callie, but she was no longer as secure as she once felt about her role in the helping. She could have just found Callie a babysitter or something…that would have been easier, or at least a lot less stressful for her. Now she was going to walk into a hospital full of colleagues that knew about her opinion of not wanting kids, with a baby on her hip and she didn't really have any way to explain that, and with the ridiculous gossip at Seattle Grace, she'd need _some _explanation, or the nurses would just take it upon themselves to make one up. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as the cab pulled up to the hospital. She could do this; she's Arizona Robbins, Head of PEDs, and PEDs is badass, _she's _badass. Yepp, she could do this, if anyone could pull off confidence while in the midst of an internal war, it was Arizona Robbins.

She was busy debating with herself, calculating the weight on each side of her with the child and her belongings, deciding on whether she could kick out her heelies and keep her balance and avoid injury to her or the tiny human when a voice next to her caused her to jump.

"That looks an awful lot like a baby." Teddy stated, grinning while eyeing Arizona and Kelsie.

Arizona rolled her eyes before narrowing them at the taller blonde "It _is_ a baby."

Teddy cooed at the little girl while prodding Arizona for more information about why the tiny human was with her, finding out very little from the PEDs surgeon other than the obvious fact that the tiny human wasn't hers.

Teddy tagged along the rest of the way to the PEDs floor, continuing on with her mission of prying information from her best friend about the mystery baby, only to have her interrogation interrupted by the gossip queen himself, Mark Sloan.

"Robbins! I hear you have a love child in the hospital!" Boomed his deep voice, causing Arizona to wince as she noticed it had garnered the attention of almost every nurse, as well as doctors, that were around.

"If I have Sloane Sloan, is this Robin Robbins?" He continued, in true Sloan fashion, ignoring the obvious fact that Arizona didn't want to talk about it. He offered his big fist to the tiny human, as if willing the baby to give him a fist bump for what he considered to be clever. "How does that happen, anyway?" He eyed the blonde up and down, he knew that the two were often referred to as "Man Robbins" and "Lady Sloan" by the nurses from time to time, as if it offered some sort of explanation for someone who knew of one of them but not the other; neither one of them was big on commitment, and he knew they both 'made the rounds', so to speak, but he knew how he'd end up with an unplanned child…how did Robbins end up with one? It was the only reason he could think of why Arizona would willingly be taking care of the kid.

When Kelsie leaned in closer to Arizona as Mark tried to get her to fist bump, she couldn't help but smile. _She knew Kelsie was a good kid._ She sighed and looked back and forth between Teddy and Mark "You realize I'm not telling either of you anything, right?"

"But – " "I'm your best friend!" "I'm your partner in crime!"

Arizona ignored them and walked down the hall to get little Kelsie settled into her temporary crib and inform the nurses on shift that she was to be cared for and to page her if anything came up. Mark and Teddy followed her back and forth as she got everything set up for Kelsie. They knew something was up with all the special attention that the little girl was getting; Arizona was great with the kids, and was much more accommodating than a lot of surgeons in regards to actually talking and playing with the patients, but it seemed like she was really going the extra mile with this particular little girl. They just couldn't get it out of her, even the pretty nurses weren't having any luck and just ended up gushing over the cute little girl like Mark had witnessed several of them gush over himself or Arizona.

Mark huffed as his pager went off. "This isn't over, Robbins. Until I get the story, I'm calling the kid Baby Robbins!" Of course he had to yell it while running towards the stairs.

* * *

**I see Arizona stars from here, but Peter Pan is miles away!**

**Bonus points for anyone who catches the reference ^^**

**So it's been awhile, eh?**


	7. A Hard Day's Night

Arizona had managed to avoid talking about her "situation" for the better part of the day. She had noticed that a few of the nurses were sending extra lingering glances her way as they chatted amongst themselves, and a few interns had tried to question her, assumedly put up to it by Mark. Yet she still hadn't spilled the beans.

Callie had texted her a few times earlier in the day to apologize for her behaviour in the morning but they chalked it up to it just being a hectic morning and brushed it off. That seemed to be easier said than done though; she hadn't heard much from Callie and she was a little worried that the woman might be freaking out or avoiding her. The logical part of her knew that Callie was at work and was likely just very busy, but who listens to the logic part of themselves when they're worrying about something.

She there she stood, surrounded by charts and paperwork at the nurses' station, really just staring at her phone hidden amongst the papers when she overheard something between a few of the nurses and lingering interns that caught her attention.

"…_I can't believe it. She's totally sweet! She wouldn't – "_

"_Sweet? You only slept together! She's obviously not that sweet."_

"_We went on a date first! And so not the point! That told me a lot about – "_

"_Oh, get off it – someone sweet doesn't abandon their child!"_

"_Guys, it probably isn't even hers, they look nothing alike!"_

"_The Ortho nurses said that it's the kid of some married chick that Dr. Robbins screwed around with; the marriage fell apart and the lady ran away and left the rugrat with Robbins."_

"I heard it was a lover's quarrel, she offed the mom so now she's stuck with the kid." Deadpanned a familiar voice suddenly at her side.

Arizona rolled her eyes and snapped the folder she had in her hands shut, turning to see "the twisted sisters" of Seattle Grace. "Yang. Grey." She nodded "Anything I can do for you?" She asked flatly, knowing the only likely reasons they'd both be on her floor would be for gossip.

"Is it true?" Meredith asked

"Yeah, are there little Robbins running around barfing rainbows and magic." Cristina threw in.

"Ooo, rainbows _and _magic. Good one, Yang!" Mark walked up, stopping opposite of Cristina and Meredith and holding his hand up for a high five that Yang refused to return.

Arizona huffed and crossed her arms, once again rolling her eyes "Don't you three have jobs to do?"

Receiving three blank looks she turned and began to walk away "Last time I checked, I wasn't the only one of us that's a surgeon!"

"No, but you're the only one that came in with a mystery baby." Cristina quickly retorted, easily catching up to the blonde, along with Mark and Meredith.

"Why aren't you bothering Sloan about having a girlfriend? That's got to be more gossip-y than me bringing a child into the _PEDs Ward._"

Mark muttered "low blow" and Cristina scoffed "As if anyone could tie down the manwhore. He doesn't have a girlfriend. No changing the subject. Spill, Robbins."

"He does so! He has for a while." She turned to him with a raised brow "Apparently I'm the only one that has to listen to his girly gushing."

At his sheepish look she groaned "Again?"

Meredith and Cristina just looked back and forth between the two with curious expressions.

"Someone care to explain?" Meredith asked impatiently.

"They get together and break up for stupid reasons. He finally convinced the poor girl to have kids but they're having 'issues'" She smirked at Mark, who huffed and crossed his arms.

"That's low, Robbins. There was no reason to bring that up." They had spent many lunch breaks talking to each other about their love/lust lives; he just hadn't really thought it would be turned against him.

"There was no reason to get interns question me all morning either. Care to explain how every one of them that came to talk to me seemed to come from wherever you happened to be at the time?" She quickly supplied.

Arizona stood there defiantly, as did Mark, both wearing cocky smirks waiting to see who would crack first.

"As fun as this game of back and forth is, we _need_ answers. Robbins, Sloan. Spit it out." Cristina crossed her arms and looked to Meredith to back her up.

Meredith offered a simple "Yeah." And crossed her arms too, leaving four surgeons standing in the PEDs hall having a staring contest.

Dr. Yang sighed and turned to Mark. "You're easier to crack, manwhore. Who's the girlfriend? Why haven't we heard the gossip?"

"And you're still sleeping around!" Meredith smacked his arm

Mark raised his hands in defence and grunted "I only told Arizona about her! And we were never together when I slept with other girls!"

"As if that makes it any better." Meredith scoffed, and leveled a glare at him "No wonder it's an on/off thing."

Mark almost looked a little hurt, but Cristina carried on "So who is she? What department does she work in?"

Arizona's interest was now piqued, the only thing Mark would let her know was that his girlfriend is also a surgeon and around her age, making her at least 5 years younger than Mark.

"She hasn't chosen a speciality yet. She doesn't work here. And I'm not telling you her name so that you can hunt her down." He finished with a pointed glare at Cristina, knowing that out of the two twisted sisters that she would have the least amount of qualms of hunting a stranger down to question them.

Cristina rolled her eyes and turned towards Arizona "I'll come back to him. You. Spill."

Arizona rolled her eyes in return and narrowed them slightly "She's the daughter of a friend. She can't go back to daycare until she isn't sick anymore" She shrugged

"You two suck."

With that she turned on her heels and dragged Meredith away with her mumbling about this being a "waste of her time" and now more determined to find out about Robbins and Sloan, certain that she wasn't being told everything she wanted to know.

The two remaining surgeons silently eyed each other, becoming aware that they probably should have just supported each other instead of throwing each other under the bus.

"I'll tell you if you tell me?" Mark offered

"Sure." Arizona sighed "I'll page Teddy too. She'll kill me if I tell you before her."

x-x

Callie's day seemed to be dragging on. After berating herself for her behaviour this morning with Arizona, she had finally figured out what she deemed to be an appropriate apology to text the blonde.

She hated working while her little girl was sick, and it was driving her crazy that her day was so busy that she couldn't even keep texting Arizona for updates.

The part of her that didn't want to be that annoying mom that checks on her daughter every five minutes was kind of glad, but she would still check her phone as often as she could to make sure she hadn't missed anything from Arizona.

She chuckled softly, realizing that Arizona wouldn't really need to consult her about anything; she was a PEDs surgeon, after all. Her smile quickly disappeared though, seeing the scowl that her whimsy caused her new client.

Several times she had tried to converse with the woman, only to be shot down after brief and curt responses. The woman was downright bitter. Any time she did speak she was complaining; the "staff" she hired (Callie included) couldn't do anything right, her ex-husband is horrible, she used to be the best and still could be, her children are ungrateful and should be caring for her, etc, etc.

Callie tried to like everyone, or at the very least be kind to everyone, but this woman was making it difficult. She had made the woman three separate lunches by the time one was deemed "acceptable" and still hadn't been told when she would be relieved for the evening and it was bordering on 9 o'clock.

Inwardly sighing, she reached for her phone to text Arizona to let her know that she had no idea when she would be done and to apologize as much as she could through a text message without being annoying or obnoxious.

She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting Arizona to respond with, but "That's fine, Calliope! Don't work too hard :)" was not even on the list of possibilities.

A million different thoughts ran through her head. She didn't know Arizona well enough to know if it was genuine, or passive aggressive, if she just didn't care…she did know that she took back everything she ever said about Apple's iMessage being creepy because she felt relieved to see that Arizona was typing something else.

"Miss Torres." Came the drawl from the other room, somehow sounding monotone and royally miffed at the same time.

Staring at her cell phone screen, mentally trying to make Arizona's message appear before she had to go see what her client wanted, she held back a groan as her name was called again. It would seem as though luck just wasn't on her side.

"Yes, Ms. Grey?" Callie asked from the doorway of her client's study, trying hard not to fold her arms and return the attitude she had been receiving all day.

"It's _Doctor_."

Had the woman been looking up, she would have seen Callie's jaw clench, her whole body subtly stiffening, as she tried to hold back her temper.

"What can I help you with, Doctor Grey?"

"You'll be relieved at 2 AM."

Callie's eyes bugged out, "2? AM?"

"Yes, _Ms. Torres_. Possibly later. Your colleague is running late. I'll have a warm bath drawn now, please."

Callie held back from cursing at the woman and silently left the room with a nod of her head and went to prepare the bath.

Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, using the sound of the water pouring out of the facet to calm herself, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted her friend/colleague, Miranda Baily, with a blunt "What the hell, Baily."

Moving to the texts from Arizona, she smiled. Arizona wanted to take Kelsie back to her place so that the little girl wouldn't be left alone in a strange environment. She had texted her address and then followed with a message apologizing for making assumptions and asked if it was alright if the little girl came home with her and that it was "totally okay if you want her to stay at the hospital".

Callie smiled and replied that it was fine and thanked her for all of her generosity and added that she might change her mind though, that she found out she wouldn't be off work until at least 2 AM.

She turned off the water and checked for a reply from Miranda, only to find out that her son, Tuck, had also come down with something, and she wouldn't make it to the Grey house until closer to 8 AM when her boyfriend would be home and able to take care of him. As some form of silver lining, Miranda had arranged with their boss that Callie would have the day off to catch up on her sleep, but would unfortunately have to be back later in the evening, so it wasn't really a day off.

She passed along the news to Arizona, with another apology, only to receive a "Don't worry about, us girls will make sure to party hard without Mami around ;)" attached to a picture of Arizona and Kelsie wearing goofy smiles, seemingly impeding a taller blonde doctor from working on her charting.

"I have a daughter, you know. She'll be a great surgeon." A soft voice coming from above startled her.

She looked up at the woman who had clearly been looking at the picture on her phone, where she had zoomed in on Arizona and Kelsie. She seemed to be having one of her softer moments, and as the woman spoke of her daughter, Callie chastised herself for enjoying "out of it" Ellis Grey much more than lucid Ellis Grey.

x-x

Arizona had brought Teddy and Mark to an empty conference room to talk. Mark explained everything that had been going on between him and his girlfriend, still withholding her name, which Teddy and Arizona thought was a bit ridiculous.

He had thought of just telling them everything, but he kind of liked not having to share with anyone, in any sort of capacity. He was fairly new to committed relationships and found that jealousy was not something he found himself fond of feeling.

After he had told all he was going to tell, Arizona finally explained to Teddy and Mark everything that had led up to her bringing in Kelsie to work.

She _almost _felt a little better getting everything off of her chest.

The three of them brainstormed ideas to help Mark and Arizona with their situations and it helped both of them just to talk things through.

Deciding that it was best to just go with what feels right, it was agreed upon by Mark and Teddy that Arizona should just go with the flow and not worry about Callie being a "newborn" and just be the "good man in a storm" that they had both heard her father go on about on one of his visits to the hospital.

The trio spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns hanging out with little Kelsie, keeping her company and making sure she was well taken care of.

Arizona was happy when she first saw Callie's name flash across her screen, but not so much when she finally read the message.

She didn't know what to do. Her shift would be over soon and she didn't really want to be at the hospital longer than necessary, even if it was at the bedside of an adorable little girl. She wanted to just go home, relax, have a lazy night in her pjs…but she didn't want to leave Kelsie here alone. Especially not with some of the rumours that she had overheard about her and Kelsie.

The last thing she needed was to come into work tomorrow to find out some nurse called Child Services because they thought she had done something crazy and was some kind of monster. She quickly made up her mind and texted Callie, only to realize that she had basically told the woman she was taking her child with her, and sent another text making sure that it was okay.

She met up with Mark while getting changed after her shift and he stayed glued to her side, sharing his opinions of how to win over "her girl", as she made her way back to Kelsie's room to collect the tiny human and her belongings for the night.

With Kelsie in her arms and Mark at her side, she made her way to say bye to Teddy for the night. When they found that Teddy was upset that one of her patients wasn't doing as well as she had hoped, Arizona took it upon herself and the adorable tiny human to cheer her up before leaving.

Mark had taken the opportunity to take a few pictures of how cute they were together and sent them to Arizona; it was part of his plan that he devised for Arizona, to show Callie how good she was with her daughter, and what better way to show that than visual proof.

Arizona ended up sending one of them to Callie, hoping that it would bring a little joy to her night to see her daughter smiling and well, from what Arizona had gathered from the few messages they had shared Callie's day hadn't been a very good one.

After eventually giving their goodbye to Teddy, Arizona with Kelsie on her hip and Mark at her side made it back to the apartment building they shared.

After parting on their floor and heading to their respective apartments (which happened to be across from each other), Arizona got Kelsie ready for bed and gently let her down on her bed while she got changed into a pair of Disney patterned shorts and a light tshirt so she could get some sleep too.

Only after she was all ready for bed did she realize she didn't have anywhere proper for Kelsie to sleep. She huffed and turned to look at the tiny human that had already fallen asleep on her bed.

Rolling her eyes and muttering to herself, she made her way down the hall to the guest room and scooped up all the pillows from the bed and made her way back down the hall to make a wall of pillows along the edges of the bed and carefully climbed in next to the slumbering child.

She sighed as the little girl seemed to wiggle closer to her and instinctively wrapped a protective arm around her, gently holding her close.

As her eyes closed she relaxed further into the bed. She was in way over her head, but when tiny hands wrapped around her hand she couldn't help but wonder if she had the wrong idea about having kids.

* * *

**Booo, I'm sick. I've basically spent all my time sleeping and/or complaining. So I consider it a small miracle that this chapter is finished!**

**Also, yay to everyone who knew it was Jacks Mannequin! You win...something? I'll draw/write something for you; you request it, I'll try it!**

**Next reference challenge: Write a song, make a note, for the lump that sits inside your throat, change the locks, change the scene, change it all but can't change what we've been**

**And last, but not least, thank you for reading and all the favs/follows/reviews, even if I don't say anything I read all your reviews and whatnot :)**


	8. I'm hot You're hot

Arizona woke with a start, hearing her pager go off and feeling something warm and wet on her arm made her panic until she realized she was just covered in baby drool. Groaning and rolling her eyes as she rolled over to grab her pager and check the time she sighed, it was only 5 in the morning.

She quickly got herself and Kelsie ready to head across to the hospital, silently cursing as she went along; tiny humans were a lot of work and she struggled enough just getting herself ready in the mornings. She sent a quick text to Callie as she got Kelsie settled into her little private room, letting the Latina know that they were now back at the hospital and Arizona would let her know if anything changed.

As she quickly changed and slipped her phone into her pocket, she was off to the tiny human in need and back to trying to ignore the looks and not-so-quiet whispering of other members of the hospital staff. Thankfully, she scrubbed in with her sidekick, Alex Karev, and he let her off the hook by attempting to make small talk throughout the surgery (the best that Karev could come up pretty much just led to them both complaining to eachother about SGMW life problems).

Just as Arizona was about to tell Karev he could scrub out as she finished up a nurse came in to inform Arizona that Kelsie was running a fever and had not stopped crying since Arizona had went into surgery almost two hours ago.

Her initial reaction was to huff out of frustration. It was a PEDs nurse, on the PEDs floor, with a whiney baby with a fever; wasn't that, like, their thing? But then she remembering the tiny human in question and those chocolate brown eyes that looked so much like her mother's, and now she was torn over worrying over little Kelsie and being frustrated with herself for not only crushing on a straight woman, but a straight woman with a child. With a quick glance to Karev, who offered a curt nod, she was quickly scrubbing out and on her way to Kelsie's room.

She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting when she entered Kelsie's room, but it wasn't three nurses. There were two attempting to tend to the upset infant and one giving her a stare down. She rolled her eyes and quickly scooped the tiny human up, cradling her closely and shot a look to the nurses who were shamelessly gawking.

"You're…good with her…" The bravest nurse spoke.

Arizona fought the urge to roll her eyes again and sighed as she angled herself to make sure she was facing all three nurses. "I'm not sure, nor do I care, what you've heard about this," she gestured to her and the child "But I can assure you that she is well looked after. Furthermore, _who _she is and _her _story, aren't really any of your business **AND **well we're on the topic…" She was cut off as a strong hand squeezed her shoulder and she turned her head to see Mark giving her the "don't waste your time" look and sighed.

The brave nurse seemed to narrow her eyes in suspicion before gasping and pointing to Mark "It's his?!" and every set of eyes in the room simultaneously widened.

Arizona shook her head and simply spun on her heels and walk away. Some people just weren't capable of being reasonable.

"It could be, ya know…"

She turned her head to the side where Mark had caught up to her after assigning the nurses somewhere else to be.

"What are you talking about, Mark?" She was confused as what part of the conversation that just happened that he had decided to go along with, or if he was just off in his own world entirely.

"Our kid…"

Her brain may have actually just exploded. Did he really just say that? This day wasn't shaping up to be a very good one, she already knew it. Snapping out of her thoughts as Mark waved his hand in front of her face, she had apparently stopped walking _and _zoned out.

"I'm sorry, what? Our? Kid? Those words don't go together, Mark." She stared at him and he couldn't get a read on whether she was angry, or still in shock.

"Just think about it, Robbins. I'm hot. You're hot. We're both smart; we're freakin' surgical gods here. We get along great! We clearly have no problem telling eachother how we really feel. And you're great with kids, and I'd be a fantastic Dad, if I do say so myself."

Arizona just scoffed and shot him a "seriously?" look before walking right by him into an on-call room and settled down onto the rather uncomfortable bed with Kelsie lying on top of her so that at least one of them would be able to have somewhere comfy to sleep. Kelsie, who hadn't cried since Arizona had taken her into her arms, just sighed softly and wiggled against her new, nice, warm and soft bed.

x-x

Callie sat on the couch in Elis Grey's living room, desperately trying to stay awake. She had cleaned, she had tidied, she even checked the kitchen's contents and came up with some breakfast suggestions for Bailey to make for Dr. Grey in the morning – or later morning, as it were.

She should be sleeping, she wanted so badly to be, but Elis had of course reminded in her (in not so polite terms) that she was to be immediately available should she need anything, and Callie knew that when she went to sleep it would take a lot to wake her back up.

So she sat there, occasionally changing her position or getting up to roam the hallways. She had wanted to text or call Arizona, but she wasn't sure of the blonde's schedule and didn't want to disturb her if she was managing to get some rest. Instead she had downloaded a tonne of apps and games to her phone, courtesy of whichever neighbour was unfortunate enough to have left their wifi password free.

It turned out that it probably wasn't one of her best ideas. Her phone was now dead and she still had hours to go before Bailey would be there to take over. So now it was dark, and quiet, and her eyes kept closing, and her head kept drooping. She was fighting a losing battle.

Waking to a tiny slap to the cheek, she groaned and swatted the air around her head only to be slapped again, and less gently. She opened her eyes to see the short yet almighty Miranda Bailey standing there silently, yet madly, gesturing for her to get her ass up and sure enough, just as Callie made herself as presentable as possible, Ellis Grey's voice echoed down from the upstairs hallway demanding that the breakfast preparations be started. At least she doesn't yell, Callie thought, probably because it would be too unbecoming for the woman who practically considered herself royalty.

Quietly gathering her things and saying goodbye to Bailey, she finally made her way out of the house that had slowly been driving her crazy and towards her adorable little girl and her new gorgeous blonde friend that kept running through her head.

She let her head fall back as she slid into her seat on the bus and suppressed a groan. Her phone was dead. Arizona's address was on that phone. _Shit, think, think, think._

Now somewhat confident that Arizona had said she lived just across from the hospital, she hopped on the transfer bus to Seattle Grace Mercy West, hoping to hell that she got the right hospital on the first try. She still didn't know how she was going to find out where Arizona lived, but surely someone could at least confirm if Arizona worked there and when she would be in, right? Maybe someone she used to work with would be there and she could persuade them to help.

Hopping off the bus and walking through the parking lot and into the lobby, she quickly zoned in on a tall blonde doctor that looked familiar, talking to a tall redheaded man and racked her brain for why the woman looked so familiar. Then she remembered, that was the doctor in the picture with Arizona and Kelsie; she had the right hospital!

Refraining from doing a victory dance in the middle of the lobby, she started making her way over to the doctors when something caught her attention and had her stopping in her tracks.

"Robbins and Sloan are having a baby. I _so _heard it. Right from McSteamy's mouth. The nurses said that the kid she has with her might even be _theirs_."

"That doesn't even make any sense." Another nurse quickly dismissed the notion.

"Oh _please. _They're both hot. Both single. It's only a matter of time."

"Either one of them could have any girl they wanted, why would they shack up with eachother?"

Callie shook the thoughts from her head and walked away before she could hear anymore. She didn't even know who this Sloan person was, or why she felt so…so jealous. But she didn't like it and didn't want to hear anymore about it, she knew how hospitals could be, she just had to convince herself that it was all gossip.

She made her way over to the tall blonde doctor just as she was about the leave and asked if she could be directed to Dr. Robbins. Feeling a bit awkward and losing patience as the doctor seemed to be inspecting her and not being the slightest bit subtle or ashamed, she cleared her throat and waited to find out where she had to go.

The other woman seemed to narrow her eyes, held out her hand somewhat cautiously, yet with that confidence that only a doctor or lawyer can possess, "Teddy. Altman. You are?"

Callie nervously wiped her palm against her pant leg and shook Teddy's hand, trying to summon up more courage, but she was just too tired for all of this. "Callie Torres."

Teddy looked like she was waiting for more and then realization dawned on her "Ohhh. Kelsie's Mom?"

Callie beamed with motherly pride and nodded her head and followed Teddy as she spun around towards the elevators and told her to follow.

After walking around the PEDs floor and not finding the blonde they were looking for, or the tiny human in her care. Teddy finally pulled a nurse over and asked where Robbins was, thinking that she might have gone home if she was only on-call today.

Coming to a stop in front of an on-call room, Teddy knocked, only to be greeted with silence. She tried a few more times before finally just taking the risk of opening the door and poked her head in just as her pager went off.

She sighed and gestured for Callie just to go in as she waived and ran off to wherever she was needed.

Callie's heart melted as she walked into the room. Both of her girls looked like angels. She almost sent herself into a meltdown, they weren't _her _girls, well, one of them was, but that wasn't the point. She groaned and carefully weighed her options; she couldn't stay awake much longer, but she didn't want to wake up Arizona and Kelsie either, she wasn't even sure she could make it home while she was this tired.

She huffed and quietly made her way over to the other bed and slipped her shoes off before lying over the sheets and almost immediately falling to sleep.

Callie jumped when the door of the on-call room flew open. What the…? A tall, muscled man with curly salt and pepper hair barged into the room and flopped onto the small mattress next to Arizona, jostling the blonde and tiny human on her chest. She briefly wondered how Arizona hadn't woken up right away from all that commotion before the man started speaking.

"Robbins, wake up! She's in the hospital! Teddy said she was! Where is she? Does she know you're going to be my Baby Mama yet? How are you still sleeping?"

All she heard on Arizona's behalf was the name "Mark" being groaned before some mumbling.

"What are you even talking about? We're trying to sleep here. Just go away."

"Man, she's here. The mother of the child using you as a bed. Here. In. This. Hospital."

Another groan, and what she was sure sounded like someone getting punched.

"Don't be an a-s-s." Callie couldn't help the smile that spread across her face, realizing that Arizona wasn't even going to say ass around Kelsie. She was finding sleepy Arizona positively adorable and wondered how much of this conversation the blonde would remember when she was more awake. "I'd know if she was here. My hot Latina senses would be tingling. All sorts of tingling. So hot."

Mark laughed and Callie couldn't help but clear her throat before this got really awkward. Thankfully the room was dark enough to hide the blush spread across her cheeks.

Two ridiculously good looking surgeons' heads shot up at the sound and she couldn't help but chuckle at how cute and childish they looked.

x-x

Now what?

* * *

**It's been a while. But I'm catching up. There's just so much to do, and I'm a horrible procrastinator. Thank you to anyone who's still reading! Or even those who read it in the first place. And to pockets004, who's pm gave me a little extra kick to get this out now rather than the end of the weekend. **

**I know this chapter doesn't seem like much, but it's going to come full circle in a few chapters and then you'll see why this one was needed.**

**Have a good one, guys! You're all awesome.  
**


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